Page 292 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

274 GENERAL GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

the road by the braves of the 7 th regiment, soon attacked on the side, by the
th
9 , is forced to stop and go back to Bezzecca and provide for a defensive
action. But nothing is achieved unless Bazzecca is taken back: and that is the
last effort of the battle. Garibaldi wants it and every brave listens to him.
“Then a small attack column (as Garibaldi himself says in his first official
report), composed of braves from all Corps, including guides, and led by
th
Major Canzio, supported on the left by the 9 , rushed without firing a shot
on the enemy and pushed him back, with close bayonet, from the positions
occupied”. The two sons of the Hero – Menotti and Ricciotti – Bideschini,
Mosto, Antongini, Pelizzari and other braves were part of his column, and
after the hand-to-hand struggle in the burning village they threw out the last
defenders that where then chased until over Enguiso and Lenzumo.
“…At the same time, also the Kaim column, that was supposed to go
down Val di Chiese, had found Garibaldi’s men waiting for them and after a
short skirmish was pushed back on all points”. Therefore, the battle of
Bizzecca that was so compromised in the morning, shaky until after noon,
turned in the first hours of the afternoon into an authentic victory that cost
our men 121 dead (6 of which officers), 451 wounded (22 officers), 1,070
prisoners. The Austrians lost 25 dead, 6 of which officers, 82 wounded (7
officers) and about a hundred prisoners.
Little can be added to the honest, objective and on the whole precise
account of Guerzoni. However, a particular mention is due to the 7 th
artillery battery (Farinetti) that, under the leadership of the brave Dogliotti,
changed the outcome of the battle, and the 9 th battery of the 5 th regiment
that, led by the brave Captain Olivieri, involved in the first confused stormy
phase of the battle, performed daringly bold and effective shots in front of
Bezzecca at the most stormy moment of the action and ran the risk of falling
in enemy’s hands in the course of the retreat on Tiarno. Nevertheless, and
despite being fired at from a short distance by groups of hunters, Olivieri
managed to put a few pieces in the battery; and when one of these was about
to be lost, the young Riocciotti Garibaldi, who was then a simple soldier with
the guides, would jump forward with a bold effective counter attack, holding
the flag of the 9 th regiment.
Bezzecca was the last glorious ordeal of Garibaldi in Trentino.
General Kuhn, warned of the fast advancing of Medici in Valsugana, aban-
doned the camp in the Giudicarie and moved against the new adversary, leav-
ing only the garrisons of the forts and some detachment to confront Garibaldi: